THE SALMON TRIBE 2873 



process, swim rapidly about the redd, fighting fiercely with one another. The use 

 of the beak appears then to come into operation. Many authors erroneously de- 

 scribe this beak either as a weapon of offense, or as a sort of pickaxe used in dig- 

 ging out the redd; but it seems to me that nature has provided this singular excres- 

 cence as a protection and safeguard against the savage attacks made on each other. 

 So large is its size, and so closely does it fit into the hole or socket formed in the 

 upper jaw, that it would appear almost impossible for the fish even to open his 

 mouth; but he does so, to some extent at least, and with its cat-like teeth inflicts 

 deep, and sometimes dangerous wounds on his antagonists. As to its alleged use 

 as a digging implement, the substance of the beak is cartilaginous, not horny, and 

 by no means hard; it would be worn down in the process of digging in ten minutes, 

 and, moreover, the female alone prepares the redd. After leaving the stone or rock 

 under which it has sought protection, the young fish grows very rapidly, as is nat- 

 ural in one destined to attain such huge dimensions as the salmon. In the course 

 of a month or six weeks the fry have attained to the length of four inches, and are 

 then called ' parr ' ; when they bear conspicuously on their bodies transverse marks 

 or bars, which are common to the young of every member of the salmon family. 

 Unfortunately, there is another little fish, a humble relation of the lordly salmon, 

 also barred, very similar in appearance, which too is called a parr, and the identity 

 in name and similarity in appearance has occasioned great confusion and contro- 

 versy, especially as they are inhabitants of the same waters, and affect to some ex- 

 tent each other's company. The time of their remaining in the parr stage is also a 

 subject of dispute; and while some say two, three, or sometimes four years, my 

 opinion is that they remain one year only. In the second April of their existence a 

 change in the appearance of the parr occurs, which assumes the silvery scales of the 

 adult fish, wearing his new apparel over his old barred coat. He is now called a 

 ' smolt,' and perhaps, with a wish to exhibit himself in his new and beautiful ap- 

 parel, evinces a daily increasing restlessness and desire to quit his home. With the 

 first floods in May myriads of these lovely little fishes start on their downward 

 journey toward the sea. It is a beautiful sight to watch their movements when 

 descending; and for many days the river teems with them, not a square foot of 

 water being without one when the stream is at all rapid. As fry the smolts were 

 exposed to many dangers, but they were nothing to those which beset them as 

 parrs on their journey toward the sea. Their enemies are legion. Trout and pike 

 devour them; gull swoop down and swallow them wholesale. Herons, standing 

 mid-leg deep in the water, pick them out as they pass; and even their own kindred 

 devour them without scruple. Unluckily, too, for them, a certain number of great, 

 hungry kelts (as the fish are called after spawning), having recovered to a great 

 extent thei-r condition, accompany them on their seaward journey, and prey upon 

 their young companions as they travel; and I believe that a hungry kelt will devour 

 upward of forty or fifty smolts in a day. Arrived at the sea, the little fish are met 

 by a fresh array of enemies. The army of gulls is always with them, and these are 

 reinforced by cormorants, divers, and other sea birds, besides which shoals of 

 ravenous fish await their arrival, and assist in thinning their ranks. It is wonder- 

 ful that any should escape, and, but for the extraordinary fecundity of the salmon, 



